US says Trump ‘interested’ in asking Arab countries to pay for war on Iran

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt says passing the conflict’s costs off to regional states is ‘an idea’ that Trump has.The White House has suggested that US President Donald Trump will ask Arab countries to cover the cost of the United States’ war against Iran, estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.Trump’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, was asked on Monday whether Arab states should pay for the war, as when US allies helped fund Washington’s intervention during the Gulf War in 1990.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Fire contained after missile attack on oil refinery in Israel’s Haifalist 2 of 3Trump threatens to ‘blow up’ all water desalination plants in Iranlist 3 of 3Two more UN peacekeepers killed in explosion in southern Lebanon: UNIFILend of list“I think it’s something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do,” Leavitt told reporters.“I won’t get ahead of him on that, but certainly it’s an idea that I know that he has, and something that I think you’ll hear more from him on.”The US led a global coalition of dozens of countries during the Gulf War to fend off Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait at the request of the country and several of its Arab neighbours.In turn, states in the region and coalition members, including Germany and Japan, raised $54bn (the equivalent of $134bn today) to help pay for the US involvement.This time, however, the US and Israel went to war with Iran unilaterally without involving their allies and regional countries.Earlier this month, Sean Hannity, a right-wing commentator close to Trump, said any ceasefire deal should include making Iran pay for the cost of the war, which has killed nearly 2,000 Iranians.“They must agree to repay America in oil for the entire cost of this entire military operation,” Hannity said.However, Iran has set US compensation for war damage as one of its conditions.Iran has retaliated against US and Israeli strikes with missile and drone attacks across the entire Middle East.